Referee

What Referee does

Referee is a private media and training company founded in 1976 and headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin. It operates Referee Magazine and provides online training, editorial content, and professional advice for sports officials, referees, and umpires, serving a specialized professional community that is structurally hard to reach through general-audience channels.

The company's core offering centers on content and educational resources tailored to on-field officials across multiple sports. Its digital property, referee.com, is the primary platform for distributing training material and editorial content to its target audience. The underlying technology stack, product architecture, and feature set are not documented in available sources, though the positioning around "online training" indicates a shift from print to digital content distribution at some point in the company's history.

Referee employs 11-50 people, indicating a small, focused operation. Revenue mechanics, pricing models, ownership structure, and management team composition are not disclosed in available data. The business model appears to combine media (likely advertising or sponsorship) with paid training products for individual officials, but specific go-to-market and monetization details are not documented. The company lists India among its served markets, suggesting some international reach beyond the US.

Name

Referee

Website

https://referee.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1976

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Referee is a private US media and training company founded in 1976 that provides online training, editorial content, and professional advice for sports officials, referees, and umpires, operating from Racine, Wisconsin.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sports Officiating Media

NAICS

Sports and Recreation Instruction (61162), Periodical Publishers (51312), Sports and Recreation Instruction (611620)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Refereeing, Officiating & Rules Training (HSADAEAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Referee, Umpire & Coach Education/Certification Academies (MPAKAJAN), Sports & Recreation Magazines (MPAJAEAJ)

Keywords

• Sports officiating training
• Referee education resources
• Umpire training content
• Officiating magazine
• Sports official advice

Headquarters

HQ city

Racine

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Core offering

Referee Magazine provides online training and advice for sports officials, referees, and umpires. The company operates as a media publication that delivers training content, instructional resources, and advisory material to sports officiating professionals through its website at referee.com.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Referee Magazine Online publication and training resource providing advice, instructional content, and educational material for individual sports officials, referees, and umpires.

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Expansion highlights1 record

Direct peers

• GameOfficials: Network connecting officials with assignors and offering training/clinic content, a comparable go-to resource for working referees and umpires.
• ArbiterSports: Dominant officiating assignment, payment and training platform used by U.S. high schools and youth leagues, increasingly competing for the same official-education wallet share as Referee Magazine.
• National Association of Sports Officials (NASO): NASO is the primary U.S. membership and advocacy body for sports officials, offering training, evaluation and education products that directly overlap with Referee Magazine's editorial and training content.
• NFHS Learning Center: The official online education and certification arm of the National Federation of State High School Associations, delivering rules training and officiating courses that compete head-on with Referee Magazine's training offering.
• Coach & Athletic Director: Long-running trade publication serving high school coaches and athletic administrators with rules, training and professional development content closely adjacent to Referee Magazine's audience.

Broad incumbents

• Human Kinetics: Established publisher of sports, physical education and coaching instructional materials that overlap with Referee Magazine's editorial training mission across a much wider catalog.

Emerging players

• Stack Sports: Sports technology platform providing registration, officiating and league-management tools that increasingly bundle training resources, adjacent to Referee Magazine's educational content.
• USA Hockey Officiating Program: National governing body's in-house officials education and certification program, an example of league-controlled training that competes with independent publishers such as Referee Magazine.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/refereemag
• Facebookfacebook.com/RefereeMagazine
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/referee-enterprises-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Referee